READING ABILITY OF EFL LEARNERS: THE CASE OF LEVEL 3 STUDENTS OF GULF COLLEGE, OMAN

Abstract

This study was conducted to analyze the reading ability of EFL learners which focused on the comprehension skill of level 3 students of Gulf College enrolled in academic English: ELP and EAPSS during the first semester of academic year 2016-2017. The aims of this study was to find out the level of reading comprehension of the students and identified what factors contributed to the poor comprehension and come up with an intervention to help students of level 3 students. In an effort to determine the reading comprehension of the level 3 students, the researcher used descriptive method of research and purposive sampling technique to identify their reading comprehension. A diagnostic reading test was administered to the two batches of level 3 students under him and all these students were the respondents of the study. These groups of students were given a teacher-made reading test to identify their comprehension ability in terms of noting details, inferring, predicting outcomes, getting the main idea, and vocabulary building. Result showed that 78 percent of the students are poor in predicting outcomes and getting the main idea. Inferring (75.6 %) was also another skill that students are low garnering 75.6 percent. Followed by vocabulary building and noting details with 56.2 percent and 53.6 percent respectively. This implies that the students have not developed their higher order thinking skill in reading and that most of the L3 students are struggling readers. Their high comprehension ability needs to be reinforced. Article visualizations: